I’ve been working on web projects for nearly a decade. I enjoy crafting solutions and, thankfully, my work over the years has steered me towards providing technological answers. What I’ve learned is that Drupal is the defacto content management system/framework for many public sector organizations and entities.
This makes sense because groups in the public sector often have very unique organizational qualities, which requires a product suite that can complement those complexities. Drupal is both pliable and opinionated; you may build what you need but you have to do it the Drupal way. The following are snippets of research I’ve done regarding Drupal and why it’s a great solution for UTC.
Unlike other CMSs, Drupal isn’t a prefabricated toy truck, but rather a collection of wheels, windshields, axles, frames, etc. A toymaker can easily connect the pieces. With Drupal, a maker could create a toy truck or create a toy airplane, submarine or robot.
For this reason, Drupal may be described as both a content management system and a content management framework—one unified system that strives to have the strengths of both, without their deficiencies.
So, whether a site builder is looking to create a news site, online store, social network, blog, wiki or anything else, it’s just a matter of combining the right modules.
The only limitation is the creator’s imagination.
Since Drupal’s modules do things in a standard way and interface with a common underlying system, building all sorts of clever, customized features is just a matter of snapping parts together.
What Are the Main Reasons Drupal is Popular in Universities?
Drupal is hugely efficient in time and cost. It provides a scalable and flexible platform capable of handling very large amounts of content and hundreds of individual contributors. It can be configured to meet the needs of entire institutions and also individual departments simultaneously, making it easier for schools and departments to customize websites to their specific area while operating under the main “umbrella.”
- Protecting students’ and faculty’s personal information, communications and academic records is of utmost importance. Websites created using Drupal are considered the toughest to hack. That’s why Drupal is relied on by so many higher education institutions and government departments.
- Universities don’t have single-purpose websites. They have many sites, departments, schools, colleges, intranets, communications systems and much more. Drupal can handle multiple sites and subsites.
- Drupal 8’s friendly user interface enables any administrators, even non-experts in web development, to design pages, upload content and manage it. Many design templates are available that are easy to use and ensure consistency across an institution.
- Websites for higher education institutions require different access rights for a range of users (professors, students, site visitors, etc). Drupal provides modules for managing access and sharing content quickly across multiple sites and portals.
- After creating content, Drupal makes reusing it and circulating it through departments, intranets and subsites a breeze. Because Drupal is open source, there are many free, simple modules available for enabling this.
- Students and staff are using smartphones and tablets more than PCs to use college websites for information, administration and communication. Drupal 8’s “mobile first” approach ensures websites always look great and function seamlessly on mobile devices.
- Drupal 8 can operate in more than 110 languages, allowing a higher education institution to cater to global needs. Drupal’s translation module is outstanding.
- Drupal’s powerful collaboration features support internal academic and research teams. Faculty members and students can easily access manuals, handbooks, procedural documents and other content for their research.
- Drupal makes social media campaigns straightforward; there are also great workflow modules available.
Drupal has the functionality, flexibility, scalability, security and responsive web design capability to claim its rightful place as the foremost platform for developing higher education websites.
To learn more:
- Why Drupal is the Right Fit for Higher Ed
- Stony Brook University Drupal in the Cloud Presentation
- Stony Brook University From Zero to Drupal in Six Months
- Drupal 8 for Higher Educational Institutions
- 14 Reasons To Use Drupal In Higher Education
- HiVolda: University site on Drupal 8
- SUNY Oneonta Drupal 8 Migration
